Tornado sighted near Purandar in Pune district

Manasi Saraf Joshi

Sunday, 10 June 2018

According to experts, a tornado is a narrow violently rotating column of air that extends from base of thunderstorm to the ground. Because wind is invisible, it is hard to see a tornado unless it forms a condensation funnel.

Pune: According to Centre for Citizen Science (CCS), on Friday, a tornado like situation was observed in Ranmala village, Najredam in Purandar taluka in Pune district at 4 pm. According to witnesses, few metal covers of motor pumps and tin roof of cattle shelters flew away on the path of a tornado but apart from this, no major damage to property was reported. As per the initial investigations, the intensity of the tornado was F0.

The event was known to people after photos and videos went viral on the social media. This was a first time when a tornado event was recorded officially in Maharashtra. A three-member team of CCS including Mayuresh Prabhune, Amey Patwardhan and Mitali Inamdar investigated the phenomena by visiting the location on Saturday i.e within 24 hours of the event. The team was guided by senior meteorologist Dr JR Kulkarni.

According to team members, they interviewed more than 10 witnesses in various localities. The team gathered information about features of the tornado, duration, path and the intensity of the tornado.

The team also collected photographs and videos taken by witnesses.

According to the members of CCS, based on site observations and video records, their primary conclusion was that the duration of tornado event lasted for about 90-120 seconds. The total distance covered by ground point of tornado was 800 to 1,000 metres, including water and ground.

The team said that post this event on Friday, heavy rainfall was observed. The team said that nearest raingauge recorded 101 mm rainfall for 1-1.5 hrs. Based on their observations, the team concluded the intensity of tornado as F0 ( from F0 to F5 scale fugita scale) Fugita scale , is a scale of rating tornado intensity based on primary damage on human built structures and vegetation.